Overcrowded inspections, rental hikes and difficult real estate agents – it’s a story many of us are all too familiar with. Australia’s major cities are facing a rental crisis and young people are bearing the brunt of it.
It’s a tough reality but I’d argue it’s almost made worse when no one talks openly about how they’re managing it. Exactly how much are people spending? How much of their income goes towards their rent? Have they sacrificed anything to be able to live where they live?
Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.
We’d much rather hear the honest truth from friends and colleagues, so we can see if we’re paying too much in comparison. Plus, there’s a type of solidarity in experiencing the struggle together. In the spirit of financial transparency, we put the call out, asking Fashion Journal readers to bare all and share exactly how much of their income they currently spend on rent, and how they budget for it.
Kay*, 25, she/her
I live in a share house in Meanjin and I’m one of four people. I pay $200 a week, not including bills, for a room that barely fits a double bed. Over half of my income is spent on rent.
Sara*, 24, she/her
I pay $450 per week to live alone in a two-bedroom apartment. This is 33 per cent of my income. I’m a really strict budgeter so I don’t find it too hard to manage. However, living alone in a nice place is a priority for me, so it feels worth it.
Bec*, 28, she/her
I live with my partner in a two-bedroom apartment. We definitely pay too much but we love the area. He makes a lot more than me and I work part-time hours so we pay in proportion to what we make. It’s $2780 a month. I personally pay $900 a month, which is 25 per cent of mfy total income. Up until recently it was closer to 30 per cent of my income but I’m working a bit more now. We split all bills 50/50, except the nature of our pay difference means he often pays for the groceries but I chip in when I can.
I do struggle but it definitely helps that we have two incomes. It’s hard seeing people go on extravagant holidays or buying heaps of clothes because some months I literally can’t even afford to see a psychologist. I get by but I hardly save, despite having relatively good spending habits. I also sometimes feel guilty that my partner pays a lot more rent than me but I have to remind myself that my pay is sufficiently less than his.
Sadie*, 35, she/her
I pay $2,100 and live with my friend and her child in a rental terrace house. It equates to 40 per cent of my income. It’s near impossible to save, I put savings aside but always have to draw down on them.
I live with my breath held, terrified the next rent increase might tip me over the edge and I can’t afford to live there any more. I’ve moved so many times now due to properties being sold and leases ending and it’s so expensive. It feels like money you never recover. I can’t afford to move again but I also can’t afford much more than what I pay now.
Francis*, 38, she/her
I pay $1,920 per month and I live with my brother in terrace house in Newtown in Sydney. It’s 18 per cent of my income so I manage fairly easily.
Ash*, 30, she/her
I live with my boyfriend in a three-by-one house in the northern suburbs of Perth. I pay $345 per week plus bills, which equals half of our weekly rent total of $690. It’s just the two of us plus two dogs. All up, this equals around 30 per cent of my income.
I often find I have no money left over at the end of each pay-check (I’m currently trying to pay off a car loan too), but our lease is up in October and we’re looking to increase our weekly budget to $750 to $800 to get the right house for us! It’s stressful and I’m now working outside of my full time work to help with the financial load.
I want to acknowledge that I feel lucky to be able to afford what we can afford, but we are at capacity for sure and struggling to plan for the future (holidays, financial planning, kids?!). Renting is just so hard. I feel like we always hear about how tenants have more rights, blah blah, but it still feels tougher than ever and I wonder if it’ll ever be easier.
Nina*, 20, she/her
I live with one other person in a unit in Brunswick West. My half of the rent is $1164 per calendar month, which is half of my income. I often find it hard to budget but I usually scrape by every month. I’m still learning how to save properly and budget my spending money.
Annika*, 28, she/her
I pay $495 a fortnight for an open plan apartment with my partner. This equals 24.75 per cent of my income. It might not seem like a lot but it makes saving money for a house deposit seem unattainable. When I’m paying someone else’s mortgage while trying to save for my own, I’m putting the same amount of money away a fortnight that I’m paying in rent. It doesn’t leave me with much wiggle room to treat myself as often as I’d like.
Darcey*, 29, she/they
I pay $255 per week for a one bedroom apartment with my partner and rent is split evenly. This equals about 31 per cent of my income. I get paid fortnightly so I find it hard to budget! In the span of two weeks, there’s always an outing or birthday or something I need for the house or work and all these small things add up. If rent was maybe 25 per cent of my income, I think it would make a huge difference.
Funnily enough a share house is now out of my budget unless I shared a room because the retail minimum wage hasn’t raised as quickly as rental prices. It’s very stressful thinking about if we would need to move and pay for a new bond and moving costs. Plus, forget about buying a house in this lifetime!
Diana*, 26, she/her
I pay $240 per week for a three bedroom apartment in East Sydney – this is 24 per cent of my income. I manage it easily because I used to pay $500 per week (almost 50 per cent more) for a one bedroom apartment in the same area, so this gives me much more disposable income. The rent has increased in my area so much, when I first lived here I paid less than I currently do for a whole studio to myself!
Marielle*, 35, she/her
My rent is $500 per week, or $2,173 per month. I pay for a unit for myself and two children (and backyard for the dog), and it comes to 45 per cent of my income. It’s debilitating. I work full-time and it’s almost impossible to afford expenses.
Amelia*, 24, she/her
My rent is $2,107 (46.5 per cent of my income) and I live alone. I’m definitely at my maximum right now, however I’m starting a new job soon which pays more so will have some breathing room. My lease started in February 2024 and I have an absolute steal. It’s a one bedroom apartment with a study, two balconies, a laundry, a north/east facing bedroom and it’s in Toorak. The price I pay was negotiated down from $515 per week to $485, as they had no applications at the higher rate.
Rhiannon*, 23, she/her
I pay $940 per month, plus bills for one bedroom in a five bedroom share house. It’s roughly 50 per cent of my income, so it feels like all my money is spent on rent. I live pay check to check.
Tim*, 34, he/they
My rent is 50 per cent of my income. I live with three other friends in a share house, so the total rent is $3,650 a month and I pay $950 of that. It’s nearly impossible for me to save for anything – my remaining money goes towards groceries, car stuff like gas and insurance and other expenses that pop up during my pay cycle.
Georgia*, 25, she/her
I live in Berlin and currently, my partner and I spent €1,350. All bills are included, it’s fully furnished and in a great area. It is still a bit expensive for Berlin standards but it’s near impossible to get something cheaper. Between me and my partner, we earn about €2,600 to €3,000 per month all together.
We aren’t really saving money but we also aren’t trying to save money. We need to start saving though. I left Australia two and a half years ago and was previously working two jobs and living with my partner in a loft apartment in Carlton (I miss it so much). There we paid $1,460 per month and I feel like we will never pay that little ever again.
Avi*, 32, she/her
My rent is $998 per month for a one bedroom apartment with partner. This is one sixth of my income. I’m saving a lot, but I fully recognise that the world is set up for couples.
Anna*, 29, she/her
I pay $620 per week, which I split with my boyfriend. It equals about 25 per cent of my income. My rent is relatively affordable however the quality of house and its issues (mould, dust, cold and damp) are hard to justify. I would love to live in a better property but the market is too competitive. I also have an investment property in regional Victoria but had to rent in metro Melbourne due to work commitments, so ensuring both mortgage payments and property expenses are covered, along with rising rents in Melbourne, is difficult.
Nikki*, 23, she/her
I pay $290 per week, which is $1,151 per month. I live with my boyfriend and we split rent, but our total comes to $2,303 for a two-bedroom apartment in Brunswick. My share is equivalent to 50 per cent of my income. It’s difficult to budget at the moment as I’m a student, so I’m not working as much as I’d like. I definitely live pay check to pay check right now.
Sophie*, 25, she/her
My rent is exactly 30 per cent of my income. It’s $1,200 a month in a large terrace house with two housemates and two dogs. My general budget for essentials is easy to manage, however I struggle to save money and rely heavily on Afterpay.
Arielle*, 24, they/she
I pay $470 per week and I live alone in an apartment with gym and pool, three kilometres from the CBD. It’s 40 per cent of my income and I know I could be saving so much more money if I lived with housemates but I went through extreme life circumstances in the past year and needed the space to live alone.
It’s an incredible privilege to live alone but it’s also incredibly expensive in comparison to living with a partner or friends. Capitalism makes it hard to do things solo and there’s an advantage to having someone who you can spilt the cost of everything with. Sometimes I do wish I had a partner to ease the burden of my rent.
*Names have been changed for privacy.
For more on housing affordability in Australia, try this.
This article FJ readers share how much of their income goes on rent appeared first on Fashion Journal.
2025-05-28 08:14:00
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